Predictive wavefront sensorless adaptive optics for time-varying aberrations

A new wavefront sensorless adaptive optics method is presented that can accurately correct for time-varying aberrations using a single focal plane image at each sample instance. The linear relation between the mean square of the aberration gradient and the change in second moment of the image forms the basis of the presented method. The new algorithm results in significant improvements when an accurate model of the aberration’s temporal dynamics is known, by applying a Kalman filter and optimal control. Moreover, where existing wavefront sensorless adaptive optics methods update all modes sequentially, the information of the Kalman filter is used to select and update the modes that are expected to give the greatest improvement in performance. The performance is analyzed in a simulation of an adaptive optics system for atmospheric turbulence. The results show that the new method is able to correct for the aberration more accurately for higher wind speeds and higher noise levels than existing algorithms.